Monday, February 8, 2010

Since a MusicMonday post from last month (here), there have been several more musical relief efforts for Haiti:

The Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli version of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" from last month's Grammy Awards is available on iTunes here. Proceeds from the $1.29 purchase price go towards the American Red Cross' Haiti relief efforts.

The 25th anniversary recording of "We Are the World" was completed the day after the Grammys. A complete list of participants can be found here. The new version is scheduled to debut on NBC this Friday during the coverage of the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver (telecast begins at 7:30pm ET). Academy Award-winning director Paul Haggis (Crash) is reportedly working on the video. The single will then be released as an mp3 download and CD single. 2/12 update: the full video, participants list, donation link, etc. can be found at www.world25.org

An all-star version of REM's "Everybody Hurts" was spearheaded by Simon Cowell -- and officially released in the UK yesterday. A complete list of participants can be found here. The song can be purchased in the UK on iTunes here -- and pre-ordered for U.S. release on Amazon here. Proceeds from the single will be split between The Sun's Helping Haiti fund and the Disasters Emergency Committee. View a video here:

Anybody blown away by music performances on tv the last two Sundays? None of the artists at the Grammy Awards wowed me. I guess I was most impressed by P!nk because she threw in some upside-down acrobatics, resisted lip-synching and actually sang well. Otherwise, some of the groupings didn't exactly live up to their hype -- or just seemed ill-fit (Stevie Nicks doing background for Taylor Swift? Absurd!). So what was your favorite performance? Still time to vote in the Grammy poll at left.

And how about the Super Bowl half-time show by The Who? They sure sounded better with a few beers in me last night than they did on YouTube replays this morning (you can view part 1 here and part 2 here). Sure, they're legends -- but I would think that more than half of the record 106.5 million viewers would have appreciated more current music. Hey back off, I'm a fan. Just saying that it was a bit too retro for most.